Japan has suffered from trade secret theft by Korean companies who enticed Japanese employees. It significantly damaged national interest. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. (now Nippon Steel) sued Posco for trade secret infringement and sought around 100 billion JPY in damages. Posco agreed to pay 30 billion JPY and the parties settled. Toshiba sued SK Hynix for trade secret infringement and sought around 110 billion JPY in damages. SK Hynix agreed to pay around 33 billion JPY and the parties settled.
On June 14 2019, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) published the Report on Fact-Finding Survey on Abuse of a Superior Bargaining Position, etc. targeting Manufacturer's Know-how and Intellectual Property Rights.
Takanori Abe of Abe & Partners analyses the different ways of handling evidence collection during patent litigation as well as the management of trade secret protection issues that arise as a result
